Veniam Dare
by hagaren22
Summary: What if, that fateful night on top of the Astronomy Tower, Draco had lowered his wand, and the Death Eaters had not come up to disrupt his agreement to be hidden away? As Draco must discover, every action has a consequence. HPDM slash, AU, HBP spoilers
1. Self Deception

**Disclaimer**: I don't own any characters, nor am I trying to infringe on the copyrights held by numerous companies. These stories are merely written to amuse me and pass the time.

**Chapter 1: Self-Deception**

Harry looked slowly over to Draco, his gaze sliding across the bare stone floor between them before finally resting on the other boy. He was dimly aware of the pitter patter of raindrops on the window behind him, and also of the pale moonlight filtering through the clouds and into the room, giving it an ethereal glow.

"How did it come to this?" he whispered, the green of his eyes obscured by the moonlight reflecting off of them.

Draco didn't meet them. "I don't know," was all he could whisper back, trying desperately to retain some of his old cockiness. But it was gone now. It was gone. "I don't know," he repeated.

"Malfoy, I…" Harry tried. Speaking had never been so hard for him. "I'm sorry. For, you know, all this. I'm sorr—"

"Don't apologize, Potter!" Draco interrupted, hissing through his teeth. His old enmity has flooded back at Harry's attempt at an apology.

What right did Potter have to apologize? Maybe before Draco could have accepted his request for forgiveness, but not now when they were so deeply caught in this web of self-deception.

That's what it had been all along. Self-deception.

Harry let out a small breath. "It's just that, you know, this is all my fault. If I hadn't—"

"Shut up!" Draco hissed, truly disgusted with the boy across from him. _Self-deception. Lies. Self-deception._

He couldn't stand to look at Potter, who apologized and took responsibility and jumped in front of others to save them, even when it meant getting himself killed.

"I'm…sorry…" Potter whispered, even quieter.

Draco closed his eyes, trying to rein in the flood of emotions those words had caused. "No. _No_."

Because Potter was always the hero, always the savior, always the spoiled brat who claimed to be 'Dumbledore's man', no matter the peril of their situation. The fool. The bloody fool.

For Draco _did_ know how it had come to this. He had made this decision. He was still deceiving himself, and he knew it.

If only he had said the two simple words that would've ended all his doubts when he'd had the chance. If only he'd conquered whatever petty innocence that had consumed him and simply uttered those two forbidden words:

_Avada Kedavra._

The moon moved behind a cloud, and the room was plunged into darkness once more.

" 'No' what, Draco?" Harry whispered from somewhere Draco couldn't see. The usage of his first name shocked Draco. Had Harry ever said it before? _Yes…once…_

Draco took in a rattling breath, and let it out slowly, trying to calm himself. "If I hadn't…gone with Dumbledore. If I had killed him. If I had just completed the Dark Lord's bloody mission." He had to stop himself and take a few deep breaths, refusing to break down completely in front of Potter. He was a Malfoy; he could never act so undignified.

And then it hit him. He wasn't a Malfoy, not really. He had betrayed everything his family stood for, soiled his family crest. His last comfort had been that his name hadn't yet burned itself off the Black family tree, but now he couldn't even say that for sure. The realization that he wasn't a Malfoy anymore, the one thing he had always been and thought he would always be, was too much for Draco.

Harry bit his lip as he listened to the soft, choked sobs emanating from the other side of the room. He hadn't expected Malfoy to let himself cry in front of him. And certainly not in this situation, where Draco would normally be gloating over Harry's many mistakes.

The moonlight returned to the room, making the tears dripping down Draco's face glow like quicksilver, like the luminescent raindrops on the window.

It was still a mystery to Harry as to why Draco hadn't killed Dumbledore that night at the Astronomy Tower, the night they found the fake Horcrux. Instead, Draco had agreed to be hidden by Dumbledore, kept away from the crumbling state of the wizarding world.

Yet here he was now with Harry, in the middle of the exact crumbling state he had been secreted away to avoid.

Harry took a deep breath and crawled on his hands and knees over to Draco, gently and tentatively placing his hand on the other boy's shoulder. "It…it'll be ok, Mal-Draco." He didn't know quite what to say besides this, especially since he had no idea if it was actually going to be ok. They were trapped in Hogwarts, chased and cornered by Death Eaters, with no discernible hope of surviving. But, the weeping form before him needed some sort of comfort, and this was all Harry could really give.

Draco's choked sobs abated for a moment, but then came back harder than ever.

----

Dumbledore's voice was quiet, gentle, despite his current position: backed up against a turret of the Astronomy Tower, weakened by the potion he had just drunk on his and Harry's quest to find the locket Horcrux.

"_He cannot kill you if you are already dead. Come over to the right side, Draco, and we can hide you more completely than you can possibly imagine. What is more, I can send members of the Order to your mother tonight and hide her likewise. Nobody would be surprised that you had died in your attempt to kill me — forgive me, but Lord Voldemort probably expects it. Nor would the Death Eaters be surprised that we had captured and killed your mother — it is what they would do themselves, after all. Your father is safe at the moment in Azkaban…. When the time comes, we can protect him too. Come over to the right side, Draco… you are not a killer…."_

_Malfoy stared at Dumbledore._

"_But I got this far, didn't I?" he said slowly. "They thought I'd die in the attempt, but I'm here…. and you're in my power….I'm the one with the wand…. You're at my mercy…."_

"_No, Draco," said Dumbledore quietly. "It is my mercy, and not yours, that matters now."_

Malfoy did not speak. His mouth was open, his wand hand still trembling. Harry thought he saw it drop by a fraction—

And then Malfoy's wand arm dropped completely as he fell to his knees. "Just get me out of this mess," he whispered barely audibly. Dumbledore smiled weakly and nodded, straightening himself and moving slowly over to Draco's slouched form.

As Dumbledore's unusually pale hand touched Draco's shoulder, Harry felt the magic binding on him release. "Harry," Dumbledore said softly before Harry had time to register his new freedom, "I want you to go with Draco. Take him to your house, and make sure he does not slip into any trouble, including with you."

Draco's head snapped up as he realized that he and Dumbledore were not alone. His eyes briefly widened as he looked at Harry, who's newly removed his invisibility cloak was slung over his arm, before they hardened again in disdain.

Harry was just as surprised and disdainful. "Sir, why would I take Malfoy to _that_ place," he said without trying to hide his antipathy. "And I think I could help here, with fighting the Death Eaters."

Dumbledore looked down and into Harry's eyes. "Harry, you have agreed to obey me without question. Although you have failed several times, this is a most critical moment for you to remember this promise. In good time it will all be explained to you. For now, however, we need to concentrate on spiriting Mr. Malfoy away and securing the school grounds. There will be plenty of fights for you to partake in, but your current one is the battle against time and luck to deliver Draco to safety. I'm entrusting this most important job to you, Harry."

"Professor, he just betrayed Hogwarts! He just endangered students! He just sold you out to the Death Eaters! And you're going to let him go, just like that!" Harry's face, although masked by the night, was flushed with anger. How could Dumbledore just let Malfoy walk away from everything he had caused? How could Dumbledore just _forgive_ him?

"May I repeat that you have agreed to do as I say, without question, and that it shall all be explained in time." Harry looked no more consoled at these words, but Dumbledore started again. "Draco may have done unforgivable things, but there is a time for condemnation and another for salvation. If we can come away from this incident with one more un-torn soul, it is a victory for our side. Innocence is a precious thing."

The look of defiance in Harry's eyes softened a bit, so the elder wizard continued in a more business-like tone. "Now, you will take these brooms to Hogsmeade, where, I believe, there is a sufficiently disused and deserted shack to floo from. Members of the Order should be there already, and I shall instruct Phineus to report that they are to immediately get Narcissa into hiding. The broom wards on the school grounds are still down, so you should have no problems getting through, and I do think you will be excused from the restriction on underage sorcery, Harry, for the duration of your travel—"

Draco, who had been silent until now, suddenly interrupted him. "This wasn't part of our deal. You said you would keep me safe and hidden, not hand me over to the one person most likely to endanger me and turn me in," he said with venom.

Dumbledore turned his piercing blue gaze to Malfoy. "Draco, it would be quite silly for Harry to turn you in, seeing as he himself is wanted far more than you. Furthermore, Harry has access to the safest of all locations, and I cannot spare the time nor the chance of being seen so as to fetch another suitable person. You must trust him, Draco, just for tonight, as I trust him."

To Harry's surprise, Malfoy had nothing to say in response. He simply averted his gaze from Dumbledore. "Yes, sir," he murmured impassively.

Dumbledore took this as a sign of acquiescence and handed Draco his broom while gesturing for Harry to mount his own. As he slipped Harry a small pouch of floo powder, their hands briefly brushed. Dumbledore's were strangely cold and clammy, but he smiled reassuringly. Harry looked briefly over at Malfoy, signaling him to kick off the ground, and Malfoy did so only after shooting Harry a cold sneer.

As Harry kicked off, he heard Dumbledore's gentle voice whisper, "Farewell, Harry, and good luck."

Harry tried to reply, "See you soon, Professor," but his voice was swallowed up by the wind as he climbed higher and higher into the midnight sky, Dark Mark still shedding its eerie green light overhead.

----

"Potter, do you even know where we're going?" Draco asked derisively.

Harry clenched his fists harder around the broom handle and continued flying forward, refusing to give Malfoy the satisfaction of looking back. _This is a mission for Dumbledore and the Order,_ he thought determinedly. He was not going to succumb to Malfoy's childish jibes at his sense of direction or intelligence.

They were almost at the Shrieking Shack, which Harry assumed was the disused and deserted shack in Hogsmeade. At least he hoped it had a fireplace… Regardless, there would only be a few more minutes of enduring Malfoy and then he could come back and fight alongside Dumbledore.

All throughout his years at Hogwarts, he thought he had had Draco Malfoy figured out. He was a spoiled brat, bent on hurting others to get ahead, or simply for fun. Harry had been completely right in supposing that Malfoy was indeed plotting something, a fact he would make a point to shove into Hermione's face later. Malfoy had also endangered the school, and had as good as sold them all out. And yet Dumbledore was still hiding him.

What surprised Harry more, though, was that Malfoy had agreed to be hidden at all.

As long as Harry had known the other boy, he talked of joining Voldemort like his father and nonsense ideals like pure blood and family pride. But here Draco Malfoy was, flying alongside Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, in an effort to escape a demon of his own creation. His own recklessness in joining the Dark Lord had caught up with him, and Harry couldn't blame him for wanting to run from it. It seemed, though, that Malfoy's undying pride for his family would have prevented such an action, and even been enough to force the killing curse off of his lips when his wand was aimed at a helpless Dumbledore.

And yet…here Draco Malfoy was, flying alongside Harry Potter.

There couldn't actually be a redeeming quality about Malfoy, could there?

"Should I take that as a no, Potter, or is your brain just incapable of stringing a coherent sentence together to answer with?" said Draco with as much snark as humanly possible.

Harry closed his eyes and counted to ten.

No, no there couldn't be a single positive quality about the arse. Harry couldn't imagine why he had ever considered the possibility.

He glanced down at the darkened landscape and began to descend onto the Shrieking Shack's unkempt lawn, not bothering to check if Malfoy was following. It would be easier for Harry if the prick wasn't following, anyway.

Harry gently touched down onto the grass, and sighed when he heard Malfoy land a second behind him. "Potter, what the bloody hell are we doing at the Shrieking Shack?" Draco asked with clear loathing.

Harry had had enough of that tone from the man he was supposed to be saving.

"Look, Malfoy, if you don't want to be carried away to safety then stop fucking following me and turn yourself over to the Death Eaters. Then maybe you and daddy can be reunited in jail," he hissed.

Malfoy glared and then said in a sharp tone, "Shut the fuck up, Potter. You don't know anything about my situation."

Harry laughed derisively. "Malfoy, I was there. I heard your whole little confession. In fact, if I do remember correctly, I also saw you crying your eyes out in a girls' loo earlier this year."

Suddenly Draco had drawn his wand and was pointing it straight at Harry's chest. "Shut up. Shut up! You don't know anything!" Malfoy's voice was infused with unadulterated anger.

Harry laughed again. "Go ahead and kill me. Oh wait, you can't, just as you couldn't kill Dumbledore." Harry knew he had let Malfoy get to him, but he couldn't stop. He still didn't understand why Malfoy was so easily forgiven, when his history clearly pointed to a Death Eater connection. Harry was now almost completely sure Malfoy had taken the mark, what with his behavior in the robe shop and apparent mission set by Voldemort.

"Don't push me, Potter, or you just might force me past my limits of self control," he spat.

Harry's green eyes cut into Draco's. "Oh? So you call what stopped you from killing self-control? I call it cowardice and fear." Harry's voice had risen to a shout.

Draco began to counter when Harry suddenly lunged towards Draco and clamped a hand over his mouth. There were definitely footsteps heading towards them from Hogsmeade's main road. Harry squinted into the darkness, trying to make out who it was. He was able to catch the swirl of a black cloak about a hundred meters off.

"A Death Eater…Let's get out of here," he whispered, biting back his anger in favor of escape.

Draco said nothing in response, and didn't even object to the hand still clamped over his mouth.

Harry guided Draco towards the locked door to the Shrieking Shack and whispered, "_Alohamora_." He grabbed at the doorknob, all too aware of the approaching footsteps, which were definitely following them and definitely getting closer. He twisted the knob and put his weight against the door, waiting for it to move.

It didn't.

"_Alohamora_," he said again, tapping the doorknob with his wand for emphasis. Once more, nothing happened. "Shit," he whispered to himself.

"What the fuck's your problem, Potter!" Draco hissed in his ear. The approaching figure was now a silhouette not more than fifty meters away, although it hadn't appeared to have noticed the pair. Yet. If it got much closer, though, that wasn't going to hold true.

"The door's locked!" Harry shot back, too stressed to deal with Draco. How the hell could a person walk as fast as the man pursuing them!

"Move out of the way!" said Draco forcefully, butting Harry away from the door. "_Aperire_!" Draco jabbed his wand at the door and a thin stream of sky blue light shot out. He then threw all his weight on the door, and it fell open with a loud screech of hinges.

"Fuck!" Draco and Harry yelled in unison as their pursuer heard the noise, spotted them, and began to run. Harry and Draco also began to run, although rather uncoordinately.

They stumbled through the dark house, tripping over its torn-up furniture and through cobwebs, until Harry's adrenaline-addled brain had the good sense to cast lumos.

"Where's the damn fireplace, Potter!" Draco shouted, all pretense of calm abandoned as he spotted the ominously black-cloaked man approach the door, which they had stupidly left ajar in their rush to get inside.

Harry tore his eyes away from the forthcoming man to stare at Draco.

Taking initiative, Draco pointed his wand at the door, slamming it shut with a bang. "Where the fuck's the fireplace, Potter!" Draco yelled again, face flushed with rage at Harry's lack of forthcoming.

"Uh…" It took him a few seconds to process the question. When he finally did, he was strangely calm and composed. "I..I don't know," he said slowly, as if all his brain functions were shutting down, leaving him with nothing but a strange peace. "Why don't we look for it?"

Malfoy's jaw had literally dropped. "Potter…you…" he was so livid that he couldn't even form an articulate sentence.

Malfoy shot another glance at the tacitly closed door, then looked back at Harry. His face contorted as if he smelled something foul, and his hand shot out to roughly grab Harry's. "We're getting out of here if I have to drag you. Now come on and find the bloody fireplace before I have to light _you_ on fire, not that I wouldn't enjoy that anyway!"

Draco yanked harshly on Harry's arm until he started walking himself. His blank mindedness was odd, as he had never been one to panic in any situation. Well, minus when it involved girls, but they were a different level of scary.

Suddenly Harry started to run. He couldn't be killed yet, not by some nameless man in a cloak on a mission to save Draco Malfoy, of all people. Not before he did what he was born to do—kill Voldemort. And definitely not before he got a little…er…_further_ in his relationship with Ginny.

Now it was Harry pulling Draco through the funereal house, searching wildly for the fireplace. Dumbledore had said there was one, so there had to be one somewhere. The place wasn't even that big!

The door banged open behind them, and the cloaked figure stumbled through, narrowly avoiding tripping on a piece of upturned furniture.

Harry averted his eyes and scoured the room frantically. Draco did likewise.

Suddenly, Draco's hand tightened on his own. "There!" he shouted, already centering his wand on the grate and whispering _incendio_. The man's unwieldy stomps as he staggered through the room rung in their ears.

They both hurried towards the fire as Harry pulled the small sack of powder out of his pocket, sprinkling a bit on the flames. With not enough time to spare for two trips, they both moved into the fire together, still clasping hands.

"Hold on," Harry whispered, before raising his voice to shout over the crackling fire and approaching man, "12 GRIMMAULD PLACE!"

As they began to spin into the floo network, Harry caught a final glimpse of their pursuer's black cloak and its silver, snake-shaped clasp. He wondered briefly what this could mean before the swirling speed of flooing caught up with him and his mind was cleared of all except a peculiar dizzy feeling.

----

**A/N: The passage in italics in the second part is from HBP canon, pgs. 591-2 (US ed.). I use it to set the scene since this fic is, in essence, an alternate ending to the events of the sixth book (not that it could ever live up to canon TT). **

**Comments are loved beyond reason: )**


	2. The Return

**A/N: Since I can't respond directly to reviews (which I find extremely annoying), I'd like to thank Tai (id: Clazertai) for their extremely encouraging review, as well as Nooka, SilverMoonset, and all those who put this story on their favorite/alert list after only one crappy chapter.**

**Thanks so much to my friend Annie (id: clamjam) for the beta!**

Chapter 2: The Return

Dumbledore still stood on top of the Astronomy Tower, perched against the wall in an effort to recover his strength. The drink had taken too much out of him, and he knew his time was coming to end.

Suddenly, the sounds of battle from below grew louder, and the thumps of many people climbing the stairs to the tower could be heard.

"So, this is how it will end," Dumbledore whispered to himself, letting the gentle late spring breeze play across his face. He had always enjoyed this time of year. He closed his eyes and let himself relax into it, savoring the feel.

The footsteps became louder, and the door burst open to reveal Severus Snape, tinted green by the Dark Mark glowing overhead. "Master, are you alright?" he yelled as he walked warily towards Dumbledore, although little of the panic he was feeling carried through to his voice or features. This was the moment he had feared ever since the night he took the Unbreakable Vow. He had known this was coming, and seeing Dumbledore, the greatest wizard of the age, so weak and frail only confirmed his thoughts. After years of being a double-agent, however, he had learned to mask most everything.

"Ah, Severus, it's good to see you," Dumbledore said cordially, although a slight cough at the end served to remind Snape of the headmaster's vulnerability.

Snape halted his slow walk forwards. "You know I cannot, Sir," he said, eyes locked on Dumbledore's but voice still devoid of emotion.

More feet were heard running up the stairs behind them.

"Severus… please…" Dumbledore said softly, his eyes never leaving the younger man's. He knew his time was running out, and this was his only chance.

Snape took a deep breath in, and raised his wand.

Four Death Eaters burst in behind him. "Haha! Look what we have here!" one yelled.

A sudden look of fury and loathing crossed onto Snape's face, the first emotion he had shown during the entire exchange.

Dumbledore's eyes still bored into Snape's, and Snape glared back. "Avada Kadavra!" Snape's cry echoed menacingly through the air, carrying with it the finality of death.

The blindingly green light from Snape's wand hit the old man squarely in the chest as the stone wall behind him gave way, sending him over the edge of the tower, to finally lie in a broken heap on the ground.

The manic laughter of several voices rang through the cold night air.

-----

Harry tentatively opened his eyes again, which had been squeezed shut for the duration of his floo trip. Stepping out of the ashy fireplace, he was reminded of the presence of the boy next to him when he realized his hand was being held. By Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy realized the same thing.

They both dropped the others' hand at the same time and made twin faces of disgust.

"Oh, Harry dear, I'm so glad to see you safe!" Harry's head snapped away from Draco at the sound of Mrs. Weasley's voice. She quickly ran up to him and engulfed him in a big hug.

Draco stood by, arms crossed and look of disgust even more pronounced. "If I had known she was going to be here I might not have come."

Harry tried to push away from the woman so as to yell at Malfoy, but she tightened the hug so he couldn't escape. "Don't pay attention to him, Harry," she whispered calmly, although it sounded as if her teeth were clenched.

"Mrs. Weasley, I need to get back to Hogwarts. The Death Eaters—" Harry said as soon as she released him.

A rare look of worry crossed onto her face. "Yes, yes, I know about the Death Eaters, Harry. Bill is there now. But I'm under strict orders from Dumbledore not to let you go."

"But," Harry sputtered, "I have to go! There are _Death Eaters_ in Hogwarts! And…and Ron and Hermione and Ginny, they're all there! I _have_ to go!"

Mrs. Weasley simply shook her head. "I'm sorry, Harry. I would be there now, too, if I weren't under orders. We just have to trust Dumbledore. He's the greatest wizard there is; he'll sort it all out."

Harry was about to protest when Malfoy spoke up. "The second greatest, you mean."

At the silence and blank looks that greeted this, Draco continued. "Dumbledore's second greatest wizard there is, after the Dark Lord."

An even thicker silence resulted from this comment.

"No, I meant what I said. Dumbledore is the greatest wizard," Mrs. Weasley said sternly.

Before Draco could throw back an insult, she continued loudly, "Well, we best get you settled, Draco." There was a slight hostility in the way she said his name. "We don't know how long you'll be here."

Draco sneered. "When's my mother arriving?"

"Your mother will be hidden in another location, to decrease the risk of finding either of you," said Mrs. Weasley.

This, apparently, was something Draco had not bargained for. "What do you mean, _in another location_?"

Mrs. Weasley seemed completely undaunted by his dangerous tone. "It's for the best, Draco. Now then, there's a room set up for you in—"

"When I said I would come here, it was under the pretense that my mother would also come here! If she's not here, then I can't be either!" Draco interrupted. He had just planned out a scheme to murder the damned Headmaster, simultaneously letting bloodthirsty Death Eaters into the castle to wreak havoc on all his classmates, had then turned on the cause he was conditioned to believe in, and now he wasn't even allowed to be in the same bloody house as his own bloody mother! The injustice sent waves of petulance and anger through Draco.

"Look, Malfoy," Harry finally cut in, "If you want to go back and get yourself killed by the Death Eaters you just betrayed, that's fine with me!" His voice had risen to a shout.

Draco narrowed his eyes. "Fine. Show me my room, but if it's not up to my standards, I'm leaving."

Harry rolled his eyes at Mrs. Weasley.

-----

"What _is_ this!" Draco spat upon seeing his breakfast the next morning. He hadn't yet recovered from the shock of yesterday's events, and chills ran down his spine at the thought of what he had done, but his favorite sport, Harry-baiting, was bound to relieve a bit of his stress.

"It's food, Malfoy," Harry replied, teeth gritted. He'd had to put up with Draco's whining all evening, and now he almost wished he had actually sent Draco back to the Death Eaters when he'd had the chance the previous night.

"And to think that I always believed Hogwarts food was rubbish," he muttered, pulling a face at his eggs and toast.

Before Mrs. Weasley had left for her morning errands, she had cooked them breakfast, and a quite delicious one, at least in Harry's opinion.

"Malfoy, it's fine. Just eat it," he hissed at the blonde.

"Shut up, Potter. No one asked you."

"_You_ did."

"Well, shut up anyway, Scarhead."

They had been bickering like this all morning. Harry didn't know how much more he could stand. Hopefully, though, Dumbledore would call him back to Hogwarts sometime today, where he could live out the last few weeks of the year searching for more Horcruxes.

Harry was also just a little worried. Why had Dumbledore not contacted him? Why had he not heard any news about Hogwarts? And why had Mrs. Weasley left him and Draco alone, when she knew they would probably end up murdering each other. Or, more than likely, Harry would end up murdering the git before Draco even had a chance to cast a curse.

A memory suddenly flashed into his mind. _Sectum Sempra_. _The blood seeping out of Draco's prone form, Harry crouched beside him, horrified at what he had done._

Perhaps this mission was Dumbledore's way of testing him, of making sure he had grown enough since that time to be able to handle the task of the finding and destroying the Horcruxes.

Harry would definitely show him.

Draco noticed the look of defiant determination that crossed Harry's face, and snorted. "Going to go get yourself killed, Potter? Can't you hurry it up a bit or something?" he asked with enough malice to make a small child burst into tears.

Harry glared for a split second, but then promptly cleared his face of all emotion. He couldn't let that stupid arse Draco one-up him from going on the Horcrux-finding mission.

Draco narrowed his eyes suspiciously. If there was one thing he knew, it was how to push Potter's buttons. The boy was far too easy to read, but that only meant Draco never failed at riling him. "Need your nappy changed first?" he added scathingly.

Taking a deep, calming breath, Harry replied evenly, "Actually, I'm just a little tired of sitting here listening to you whine." In all truth, Draco was in fact riling him. Harry just had to maintain control.

Before Draco could fire out a retort, Harry had stood up from the table and walked out of the kitchen, looking forward to some solitude in the sitting room.

Draco's eyes followed Harry out, but then moved back to the other boy's seat, a sneer growing on his face. "The bloody ape can't even clean up after himself."

-----

By lunchtime, Harry decided he had had enough of babysitting Draco Malfoy; it was now time for some serious action. There had been no word from Mrs. Weasley, nor from anyone else in the Order, and Harry's natural curiosity and hero-complex were starting to get the best of him

He paced nervously in front of the fireplace, fingering the bag of floo powder Dumbledore had given him. Even if this was a test, Harry didn't think he could take much more of it. Draco could take care of himself, and certainly had nowhere to run to, especially since he knew nothing of his or his mothers' current whereabouts.

Harry could floo to Hogsmeade, and from there travel up the road to Hogwarts. Dumbledore, or at least a former member of the DA, would probably be there and could explain what had happened and assuage Harry's worries as to the well-being of his friends. Then, if all was well, he could return to the Grimmauld Place. The whole ordeal would take no more than an hour, in which time Malfoy could entertain himself by torturing a small animal, or some such Malfoy-ish hobby.

Harry nodded to himself, mind made up. It really couldn't hurt to go.

He was just about to open the bag of powder and take a pinch when Draco spoke up from the doorway behind Harry. "Abandoning your duties already, Potter?" The tone of his voice suggested that there was a smirk plastered onto it.

Harry sighed inwardly. He had been so close to escaping the git. "I was going to get news of the little fiasco you caused yesterday, actually," said Harry, not bothering to hide his annoyance or turn to face Malfoy.

"Then I'm coming too," Malfoy said resolutely. This made Harry turn around to face him.

He was surprised to notice the seriousness of Draco's countenance. There was no trace of his usual sneer.

"You'll be much safer here," Harry said, truly puzzled at Draco's unusual display. He was perhaps the biggest coward in all of Hogwarts, so it would be quite illogical for him to go willingly out into danger.

Draco noticed Harry's condescending puzzlement and sniffed haughtily. "Listen, I am not going to be left in this disgusting house to be forgotten and rot. I'm coming with you, Potter." His tone was unyielding.

Harry shook his head in disbelieving amusement. Draco was probably just afraid to be in Grimmauld Place alone. Harry honestly couldn't blame him, it was rather creepy, but it still seemed irrational to want to leave the relative safety of the house when you were number two on Voldemort's wanted list.

Of course, Harry was number one, and he had absolutely no qualms about leaving the decrepit building.

"Fine, Malfoy," Harry said resignedly. He wasn't much in the mood for a fight, and just wanted to get out of the sepulchral house.

Malfoy's smirk returned in triumph, but Harry was standing in the fireplace shouting the Three Broomsticks' address before Draco could take a shot at his easy acquiescence.

It was only after he had landed dizzyingly in the Three Broomsticks' fireplace that he realized that choosing the Three Broomsticks to floo to might not have been the best of ideas.

Harry stepped speechlessly out of the fire, mouth agape at the wreckage that had previously been the pub. Draco arrived seconds later and seemed just as shocked.

The tables lay turned over, legs broken off and lying amidst piles of broken glass from the shattered bottles that had once neatly lined the shelves. The curtains were torn up, and all the torches extinguished, plunging the room into semi-darkness. Harry felt Draco shiver behind him.

"They were here," the boy whispered, moving forward to stand beside Harry.

Harry looked at Draco, noticing how frighteningly pale Draco looked, and was suddenly afraid to ask who Draco was talking about.

Draco clarified without prompting. "The Death Eaters." His voice was soft and terrifying in a way Harry had never thought possible from the pompous Slytherin.

Harry found a chill creeping down his own spine. "Malfoy, let's get out of here," he said equally as quietly, as if speaking any louder would upset the scene. It was now a burial ground, a place of rest, not to be disturbed.

Draco nodded in agreement, and the two slowly wove their way through the debris to the door. In silence, they moved down the deserted streets of Hogsmeade, both fully aware of the eeriness of the scene. There were absolutely no sounds save their own footsteps echoing dully around the road, as if the whole world had left them.

Harry practically jumped when the sound of a creaking gate also filled the air. Looking up, startled, he realized it was Hogwarts' gate, swinging gently in the breeze. Hogwarts' gate was never open unattended.

Judging by Draco's quick intake of breath, he had noticed this too. "Why's the gate open?" he said in a hushed voice.

Harry shook his head. "Dunno. Maybe…maybe they're expecting visitors? Or someone just forgot to close it…" he said, more to reassure himself than Draco.

"No, that can't be it. They're never just left open like that. Somebody…must have not bothered to close it…maybe after rushing out in a panic…"

Harry was suddenly very angry at Draco for even suggesting such a thing. "Shut the fuck up, Malfoy," he spat, irrational rage flooding through his body, making his fists clench tightly.

Draco was taken aback at Harry's abrupt show of anger. "Been hit by one too many stupefy's or something, Potter?" Draco's quick tongue retorted.

Harry shot him the most hate-filled glare Draco had ever seen. "You bastard. How can you even talk like that? How can you say such things, when this is all your fault! Where the fuck do you get off speaking about this mess as if you had absolutely no part in it!" Harry's voice had started out controlled, but was quickly rising to a snarling shout.

"You let the fucking Death Eaters in here yourself! You plotted the whole damn thing!" he continued, and Draco noticed that Harry's wand had somehow made its way to his hand.

Suddenly, Harry's wand was at his throat. "You _are_ a fucking Death Eater!" Harry hissed.

This time, Draco was devoid of a scathing, or even witty, retort. The look on Harry's face rendered him speechless. It was not a look of hatred, or even anger, but a look of pain and sorrow, the likes of which Draco had never seen. "I…I'm not a Death Eater, not yet. I guess now…not ever." His voice sounded so small compared to Harry's forceful words.

A sharp wind blew through the air, swirling dust around the pair, and the gate groaned again loudly. The noise seemed to shock Harry out of his fit of rage. He screwed shut his eyes and looked away from Draco, shakily lowering his wand. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

Draco narrowed his eyes guardedly, although was relieved to be freed from Potter's wandpoint. "Fuck right you're sorry, Potter," he hissed, trying to put up a confident and disaffected air, as if Potter's outburst had not truly rattled him. The trembling breath he let out gave his true relief away, though.

Harry slipped his wand back into his robes. "Yeah, I really am."

Without glancing again at Draco, he walked through the open gates and towards the foreboding black castle looming farther up the path.

Draco wanted desperately to go anywhere but back there. For all his arrogant words and denial, he actually was horrified at what he had done. Harry didn't even know the worst parts: that many Death Eaters, including a werewolf, had actually entered the castle, and a battle had broken out, wounding many. Draco had never meant for people, especially his fellow students, to get hurt, no matter how malicious he imagined himself to be. He had been given a mission by the Dark Lord himself, and one never defied the Dark Lord.

Draco shivered when he realized that, in essence, he just had.

What the fuck had he gotten himself into?

Still, he had made his choice, and he couldn't just waltz back to Voldemort and expect forgiveness or mercy, no matter how much he regretted his decision. At least his mother was safe, although he didn't know where "safe" might be.

With these thoughts swirling through his head, he followed Harry. He couldn't turn back. It was far too late for that.

-----

**A/N: Too much dialogue, not enough action?**

**I think so too.**

**Next chapter will be action-packed, I promise!**

**Heheheh…it's all just about to begin…**


	3. Escape into Danger

_Wanna spit out these grating emotions of mine because_  
_There's no other proof of my existence_  
_My future I thought I'd grasped_  
_Is a contradiction between dignity and freedom_

_Wanna erase these distorted afterimages because_  
_They show my limitations_  
_In the window of my excessive self-consciousness,_  
_There are no dates in last year's calendar_

_Erase and rewrite_  
_Worthless, wild illusions_

-Rewrite, Asian Kung-Fu Generation (Japanese lyrics)

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**_Veniam Dare_ Chapter 3: The Escape into Danger**

As Harry and Draco neared the castle, their sense that something was slightly off increased. The castle grounds, normally crowded with students on a warm late spring afternoon such as this, were a deserted wasteland. Hagrid's cabin lay in ashes, and much of the surrounding ground was scorched bare. The castle itself was dark and seemingly empty.

One sentence repeated itself over and over in Harry's head as he walked. "_This is all Draco's fault. This is all Draco's fault. He planned it, he executed it… this is all Draco's fault."_ And yet, Harry found himself unable to be angry with Draco. Draco's own words from atop of the Astronomy Tower also played through his thoughts. "_I've got to do it. He'll kill me. He'll kill my whole family!_"

Harry couldn't help but think that, if he had had a family, he would've joined up with Voldemort to save them too.

In Draco's head, a similar series of words was swirling. "_This is all my fault. I planned this…I did this…This is all my fault…_" he thought over and over again, despite his best attempts to suck up his guilt. Whatever horrors lay inside the school, they were the manifestation of his mistakes, and no one else's. Well, perhaps they could've been Dumbledore's. Draco just _knew_ the senile old man could've used his supposed great magic to do something.

The pair reached the steps leading up to the main doors.

"Well," Harry finally said after several seconds, taking a deep breath, "let's go."

Draco nodded, and they began the climb the stairs.

Upon reaching the top step, Harry asked, "Do you think the door's locked?"

Draco shook his head. "No. If the outside gate wasn't locked, the doors probably aren't."

Harry nodded, and put a hand on the metal latch of the door, warily pulling it open. It gave without much force.

Both boys paused before entering the opened doors. Neither was really sure they wanted to know what had happened at the castle after their hasty exit the night before.

"I suppose we should go in," Harry said shakily, after a few moments.

Once again, Draco nodded, and they walked into the school, very afraid of what they might see.

The first thing Draco noticed upon entering was the absolute normalcy of the entrance hall. There was nothing at all out of place, except the lack of students and faculty. "Well, that was rather anticlimactic," he said, letting out the breath he had been holding since Hogsmeade.

Harry, however, was not so easily relieved. "We're only in the entrance hall, Malfoy," he said, annoyed.

Draco sneered. "Potter, if you—" Before Draco could finish his witty retort, however, a series of loud thumps from atop the staircase leading out from the entrance hall cut him off.

"Someone's coming!" Draco exclaimed a little too loudly, obviously excited at the prospect of a person still in the castle.

At this, the footsteps abruptly halted. "Somebody down there?" a deep, gruff voice shouted from just out of sight. Apparently they had heard Draco.

Draco was about to reply when Harry clapped a hand over his mouth in the exact same way he had the day before. Draco thought of protesting this with a sharp bite to Harry's hand, but was suddenly distracted as the figure came into view at the top of the stairs.

"Oh, shit," was all he could think to say as he immediately recognized the Death Eater regalia.

A split second later, Harry had moved the hand covering Draco's mouth to his arm, and was now pulling him along by it as he sprinted through the corridors. The pair quickly ducked into a classroom and slammed the door behind themselves, as Harry muttered a locking spell.

"Nice going, Malfoy," Harry said scathingly, although he was still trying to catch his breath.

Draco sneered. "It's you who dragged me to this bloody castle, Potter."

"Actually, I think it was you who insisted on coming. And you who had to go and shout at the Death Eater like a great big git!"

"Well, I did assume that our favorite senile wizard, Dumbledore, would have cleaned the place up, or at least evicted the Death Eaters!" Draco's voice was laced with contempt for Dumbledore, despite the debt he owed him.

Harry heard it clearly. "Don't you dare speak that way, when he saved your sorry Malfoy arse! If it had been me, I'd have thrown you back to Voldemort and left you to your just desserts!" Harry hissed.

Draco sniffed haughtily, suddenly reminded of his burning guilt, which put him out of his quarrelsome mood. "Shouldn't you be doing something more productive than arguing with me? Any moment, Naylor is going to rush in here and have our heads, probably literally."

Harry looked annoyed for a moment before deciding that it actually was rather counterproductive to stand there arguing. "Well, do you have any ideas as to how to get out of this situation, seeing as you got us into it?"

Looking smug, Draco pointed to the window on the other side of the deserted classroom. "We're still on the ground floor, right?"

Catching on, Harry nodded, and they both walked briskly over to the window to investigate. Sure enough, it led straight outside.

"Alright," Harry finally said, and then, harshening his tone, "_reducto_!"

The window shattered into a thousand pieces by the force of the blast, and Harry jumped through, shards still raining down and catching the afternoon light. Draco couldn't help but stare, mesmerized at they way they shone, blue from the sky and silver from the light's glare. He especially admired the way that the pieces sprinkled in Harry's hair sparkled with such intensity against the black.

He was thrown out of his reverie when somebody, presumably their pursuing Death Eater, pounded on the classroom door behind him. Wasting no more time with foolishness, Draco followed Harry through the broken window, and began to run down the path that led to the main gate they had entered only minutes before.

Draco found himself wishing he had taken Quidditch more seriously this past year. He was thoroughly winded by the time the gates came in to sight, while Harry appeared only mildly tired. Not to be beat out by Potter, though, he made a point of running faster than him as they neared the gates.

Also as they neared the gates, Draco began to notice that something was slightly off. The magic in the air had changed faintly since their arrival.

Harry and Draco ran the last few meters toward the gateway, and then Harry shot out a hand to pull one of the gates open. It didn't give, however.

"What…What the fuck?" Harry panted, out of breath from their mad dash.

Draco also threw his weight on the gate, but it didn't budge. "_Aperire_!" he shouted, repeating the spell he had cast earlier to open the door to the Shrieking Shack.

The gate still didn't open, and Harry began to look around frantically. Their pursuing Death Eater was quickly gaining on them, the entire situation a twisted parody of their earlier escape from the Death Eater at the Shack.

"Malfoy, can you Apparate yet?" Harry asked, suddenly turning towards him.

Draco would have snorted had he not been so worried at their current situation. "Of course I can, Potter!"

Harry didn't even nod in response, simply grabbing Draco's arm and forcing them into the strange, suffocating darkness of Apparition.

Immediately, Harry found himself bouncing back onto Hogwarts' grounds, their position completely unchanged. "Wuh..What?" Harry stammered, disoriented after his failed Apparition.

Draco quickly pulled his arm away from Harry's hands. "What kind of a fuckwit would try to Apparate on school grounds! Even someone of your mental capacity should know that there are wards to stop that sort of thing, Potter!" Draco shouted, glancing tensely at approaching Death Eater.

Harry ignored the comment, mind racing frantically. _The wards must have been put back up in the time between our entrance and now. But only Dumbledore can control the wards, right? So why would Dumbledore put them back up…_

"I think it's your turn to propose an escape plan, Potter," Malfoy said, poorly veiling the desperation in his voice. The Death Eater was speedily nearing them.

Harry actually had absolutely no idea what to do, all he knew was that he couldn't give up. He would die fighting until the last.

This thought propelled him to once again grab Draco by the arm, tugging him away from the gate and back onto the grounds.

Draco cast another worried glance at the Death Eater. "Potter, what the bloody hell are you doing!"

Harry didn't waste his breath. "Forbidden Forest," he muttered. They had now sped up to an all-out run.

At this, however, Draco stopped dead. "The Forbidden Forest! Are you mad, Potter! We'll be killed! Eaten alive!" he sputtered.

Unfazed, Harry refused to stop his flight, and only tugged Draco more forcefully. "Look, we can't Apparate because the wards are up, which means we couldn't fly out either, even if we happened to have brooms. The gate is locked, too, and it's almost a certainty that the Floo network will have been cut off. Plus, a Death Eater is hot on our trail," Harry said, his voice remaining completely calm. "You wanted me to come up with an escape plan, and this is it."

Draco looked completely incredulous, but couldn't find the words to argue with. What Harry had said was true, and entering the Forbidden Forest would certainly lose the Death Eater, who would probably not venture after them. "You know, Potter, the purpose of an escape plan is usually to escape _alive_. I'm not quite sure that running straight into the thick of the Forbidden Forest is going to help accomplish that." His usual snark was absent, however. Apparently the direness of the situation had made Draco a bit more compassionate. And a bit more likely to follow Harry's orders and run for his bloody life, as he was now doing.

Every few paces, Draco sent a nervous glance back at the Death Eater, who had increased his pace to match theirs, and was less than a hundred meters away. Harry, however, kept his eyes glued to the forest, now only a few hundred meters off.

"Potter, can we hurry…hurry it up…a little…" Draco panted between breaths. "He's…gaining…"

Harry obediently put on a burst of speed, still refusing to look back at the Death Eater.

Draco was having extreme problems keeping up, but would've rather burned in hell than admitted it to his present company. He cast a look back again at the pursuing man, and was struck by how odd it felt to be chased by one of his own. Only yesterday he had been of the Death Eater ranks himself.

Suddenly the glance backwards turned from anxious to longing. The Death Eaters had preserved the stability he'd been accustomed to since childhood, the kind of stability that having a father in Azkaban would otherwise corrupt. In this way, he owed them a debt. Not that he would have ever willingly killed his ex-school's headmaster without their coaxing, but they had at least brought out a potential he never knew he had. To be able to plan something so intricate as that…he'd never known he could.

Still, he had to run on. Even if it was with someone he loathed as much as Harry Potter.

At that moment, they reached the heavy shade of the ancient trees of the Forbidden Forest. Harry continued to run, though, and still hadn't let go of Draco's arm. Finally, he looked back at the man following them, gauging the distance separating them.

"Quick, Malfoy, over here," he hissed, pulling Draco sharply to the left.

Behind them, Draco made out the loud, angry curses of the Death Eater, who appeared to have stopped tailing them at the fringe of the forest.

They crashed through the undergrowth for an indeterminate amount of time before Malfoy panted out, feeling as if he would collapse any moment, "Potter…stop, dammit!"

Harry finally stopped, and Draco actually did collapse, pulling the still clinging Harry along with him.

They landed in a heap on a soft bed of leaf and loam, both sweating and breathing heavily from their long getaway. When Harry came back to his sense, he found that one arm was wound around Draco's back, who was lying across his chest. He was even more disconcerted to notice that Draco's knee had somehow worked its way between Harry's thighs.

Somewhere, he must have had a bit of reserve strength left in his body, because he was able to push Draco off of him in a flash, rather too violently. Draco, however, had no such strength remaining, and merely lay limply on the spot of ground where Harry had thrown him.

Seeing Draco so helplessly exhausted, Harry couldn't help but feel a little ashamed of his sudden action. "Sorry…" he muttered awkwardly, blushing ever so slightly.

Draco didn't notice, and instead lay exhaustedly on the ground, wishing never to move again. Just about every muscle in his body burned with an unrivalled passion, and not in a good way. Closing his eyes, he let his head fall back. "Shut up, Potter. Your little traipse through the forest has caused me enough trouble already."

Harry sighed wearily, and flopped to the ground. "It's not exactly safe to sleep, completely unprotected, in the Forbidden Forest, you know. It's forbidden for a rather good reason."

Draco's sneer was evident in his voice, although much of the bite was gone, replaced instead with fatigue. "Really, Potter, that must have somehow slipped my mind," he said sarcastically.

Harry let a brief smile flit across his lips. "I'll just take that as a plea for my warding expertise, and cast a protection spell, then," he said, surprised at his own tolerance of Malfoy so far. A sarcastic comment like that would have usually resulted in a duel.

Harry spelled a few quick warding and shielding charms, defending them from the most common forest-lurkers, although they would do nothing against any exceptionally unusual or dangerous creature. Harry would just have to rely on his own instincts for that, which he wasn't entirely confident in.

His weariness finally catching up with him, Harry collapsed onto the ground, breathing a sigh of exhaustion and relief at the relative safety he was in for the first time that day. He was asleep almost immediately.

---------------------------------

Harry woke up with a jolt a few short hours later, confronted with the true darkness of the forbidden forest at night. One of his warding charms was emitting a low whistle of warning. Sitting up quickly, Harry cast _lumos_ and scanned the forest floor for any sign of Draco. He was nowhere in sight.

"Malfoy?" Harry called hesitantly, pulling himself to his feet and dusting wayward leaves off his cloak. Whatever had set off the wards obviously wasn't much of a threat, since the whistle was very low and relaxed, but it was still not a good idea for Draco to be off wandering alone at night in the Forbidden Forest.

Harry was seized with worry. Had this all been some plot of Draco's, to lure him into the deep of the Forbidden Forest and then leave him there for dead? Worse yet, could Draco leave him to be devoured by a dark creature? _Or_, Harry thought darkly, _could he have led me straight to Voldemort himself_? Even if Draco claimed to not yet be a Death Eater, it didn't mean his alignment was completely set with that of the Light, either.

As Harry's suddenly panicked mind raced through the possibilities, a memory strutted unbidden into his thoughts. '_Shouldn't you be doing something more productive than arguing with me,'_he remembered Draco saying, back in the empty classroom at Hogwarts, while they were still running from the pursuing Death Eater._ 'Any moment, Naylor is going to rush in here and have our heads, probably literally.'_

A slow horror, deeper and darker than the previous panic, engulfed Harry's mind. Naylor. Draco had said _Naylor_ when referring to the Death Eater. He had known the Death Eater's name.

_They're probably allies, still, _Harry thought frantically. _Draco's failed assassination attempt was probably just part of a greater plot, to lure us all away from Hogwarts and into further danger. And now, I'm lost and alone in the Forbidden Forest, and only Draco Malfoy, the supposed Death Eater, knows my location._

At that moment, Harry heard the crunch of stick and leaves behind him, and swing around to face the incoming creature. Without his realizing it, the buzzing of the wards had gotten louder. "Expelliarmus!" Harry shouted, not hesitating enough to see the face of the approaching figure. It flew backwards and slammed into a nearby tree, groaning in pain.

"Potter, what the hell are you doing!" came the unmistakable Malfoy drawl from the form, now doubled up against the tree he had been blasted into.

"Malfoy," Harry growled, all at once relieved that it wasn't some dark creature of the forest but furious that Malfoy even dare come back to camp after what he had surely done.

Draco, who had just started to regain his balance and walk away from the tree, immediately backed into it again. The magical power was radiating off of Harry in waves, and he had good reason to be afraid.

"Malfoy," Harry said again, low and menacing, "where the fuck were you?"

Draco, back now firmly pressed against the tree, felt a little comforted by the strong, solid bark against his back. He also refused to be intimidated by his long time enemy, and tried to make his voice powerful enough so it seemed that he actually wasn't. "I don't think that's any of your business, Potter. It was you who attacked me, anyway, and I think I therefore deserve more of an explanation."

"_You deserve an explanation_ my arse!" Harry shouted in anger, striding up to Draco, wand still poised to cast an offensive spell. "You've known all along, Malfoy. You knew that the Death Eater would be in Hogwarts, didn't you? You knew that the wards would be put back up and we would have nowhere to run but the Forbidden Forest, where you could easily turn me over to your precious Dark Lord!

"You knew that it would all turn out like this. In fact, you probably put up the wards yourself, while I was distracted with trying to get away from the Death Eater, _Naylor_," Harry accused, putting sarcastic weight on the Death Eater's name.

Draco looked completely flustered, although just as venomous as always. "Think, Potter! How could I, a mere sliver of _your precious Dumbledore's_ age and might, put up the wards, while I was running for my life, nonetheless!" he shouted back at Harry.

Harry, however, was undeterred. "I know you did it. Why else would you have asked to come with me, back at Grimmauld Place? Why else would you, the biggest coward in the Wizarding world, _beg_ to be brought into known danger, unless you were on a mission from your master? Answer me that, Malfoy," he hissed, face only inches away from Draco's.

Malfoy glared back for a moment before answering. "I don't know myself, Potter. Or is that answer not acceptable to your majesty, the mighty giver-of-all-judgments?" he spat.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Harry retorted belligerently.

Malfoy smirked. "It means you're a hypocrite, who hates when people judge but has already placed judgment on others. It means you've deemed yourself worthy to judge me guilty of crimes I was already cleared of, and certainly did not commit. It _means_ you're a paranoid fuck who can't get his head out of his arse and realize that we're in this together, because I would certainly not willingly seek refuge in the Forbidden Forest, whether on orders or not. And, if you recall, it was your idea to come here anyway."

Harry's anger dissipated slightly, as the truth in Draco's words penetrated his mind, but he was still not entirely convinced. "Then how did you know the Death Eater's name at Hogwarts?" he asked suspiciously, still not backing down.

Draco sighed, and then spoke as he would to a dim child. "Potter, my father was in the Dark Lord's inner circle. I've grown up around these people. Not to mention that I did indeed work with them for most of last year."

Harry was about to say something more when he suddenly realized how close he and Draco were, their noses almost touching. He also realized that he could feel Draco's breath, hot from the heat of their argument, ghosting across his cheek. Something about this felt shamelessly erotic to Harry, and he instantly backed away, blushing.

Draco also seemed to have noticed their position, for he did not offer a contemptuous comment to break the awkward silence that had befallen the pair.

"We should, um, get going, I guess," Harry finally mumbled, ending the warding charms he had set up.

"Like we even know where we're going," Draco said sarcastically.

"Well," Harry replied, voice a little shaky from their argument, "all we can really do is go forward. The forest has to end somewhere, right?"

Draco nodded and started walking, but didn't speak. Harry was slightly abashed at his outbursts, but refused to apologize. His claims had been well founded, or at least he thought so.

After about an hour of walking in silence, though, Harry wasn't quite so keen on not speaking. He had been thinking the entire walk, and still had some questions for Malfoy. He decided that this time he'd take a more tactful approach.

"Malfoy," Harry finally asked with faked nonchalance, "how come you decided to turn against the Death Eaters? I mean, I can obviously see why, since they're a load of slimy, evil scum with backwards ideals, but I thought that all that was what you wanted to believe in."

Draco was silent for a few moments before answering. "I don't know," he finally replied, also with forced insouciance, waving his hand in a dismissive gesture. "My father was in Azkaban and my mother was all alone. I did what I had to, to try and keep her safe. Isn't that what perfect sons are supposed to do?" he said with a demeaning sneer at Harry.

Harry, not taking the bait, replied calmly, "I wouldn't know."

Draco mentally slapped himself. Of course Harry wouldn't know, being an orphan. He felt a slight pang of guilt, which caused him to blanch. A pang of guilt, for _Potter_? He was clearly losing his mind. Which, he decided, was a far better fate than actually identifying with the bane of his school years.

After several minutes of awkward silence, Malfoy spoke again, condescending air fully in place. "I was just sick of it all. Like I said, I did what I had to be done to keep Mother safe. The Dark Lord offered me protection at first, after my father was imprisoned. There was never any reason for me not to join the Death Eaters; we have concurrent beliefs, and I always wished to follow my father. But then the Dark Lord became the threat to my mother, and my father. He threatened to kill them. And, I suppose, I still had to do what I had to do to keep Mother, at least, unharmed."

Harry looked quite openly astonished. "You mean you, Draco _Malfoy_, actually have a redeeming quality somewhere?" Perhaps his earlier notion on this topic hadn't been quite as off as he had thought.

Draco sniffed disdainfully. "Loyalty to the family over loyalty to the cause, Potter, even when the cause is as important as the Dark Lord's."

The tips of Harry's mouth scrunched slightly into a frown. "So you still believe in the righteousness of Voldemort's cause? Of murdering innocent people, simply over their heritage?"

After shuddering a little at the mention of his former lord's name, Draco answered confidently. "Absolutely."

Harry shook his head sadly, frown still sitting on his face. "How can you, Malfoy? Even after all the Death Eaters have done to you, have made you do? They threatened your family for gods' sakes! And what the hell does it matter how pure someone's blood is, when you can look at their heart or their character and get a much better picture of who they are?"

Narrowing his eyes, Draco replied scathingly, "Unless I'm quite mistaken, I don't recall this being Question Draco Day, Potter. I believe what I believe, and that is not for you, Golden Boy, to question. Mudbloods and Muggles deserve what they get, anyway."

Harry stiffened. "I can't believe you. I really can't. How can anybody deserve death and torture?" Harry's voice had started to shake in barely controlled anger. Although Malfoy's prior words had caused a small glimmer of hope in Harry that Draco couldn't be entirely awful, this was clearly the Malfoy that he had known all along. _I suppose even the most rotten apples have a spot or two not entirely devoured by worms_, Harry thought bitterly.

"You don't have to believe me, Potter," Draco replied, nonplussed.

Harry clenched his teeth, but didn't respond, instead venting his frustration by crashing loudly and violently through the trees.

Draco, conversely, suddenly halted, standing stock-still, head cocked to the side. "Potter, do you hear that?" he asked, voice hushed.

Harry, still annoyed, swung around. "Hear _what_, Malfoy?" he snarled. Then, however, he too froze mid-step. "Is someone…something…out there?" he said, voice now a whisper. There were most definitely crunching sounds emanating from nearby, as if a beast was stomping through the forest, much like Harry had been moments earlier.

They both stood in silence, listening intently to the noises, trying to discern where exactly they were coming from. Harry turned around in a slow circle, scanning the area, but the trees were far too thickly laden with leaves, and the ground level far too shaded, for anything to be easily seen.

"Shit," Harry whispered, barely daring to breath, "they're getting closer."

Draco's heart was pounding wildly as he frantically searched the forest for any sign of where the movement could be coming from, but all was dark and still as far as he could see. He glanced over at Harry, who had drawn his wand. Fumbling a little as he fished it out of his pocket, Draco did likewise.

Just as quickly as the mysterious beast's noises had begun, they stopped. For a moment, the forest seemed to stand still, the air leaden with suspense and quiet. The seconds of total silence dragged on, the dark trees seeming to press in on the two boys, making to trap and suffocate Harry and Draco in their thick foliage.

The hush finally reached its peak, and Draco, adrenaline rushing through his veins, could no longer take it. He let out a slow, controlled breath, gaining confidence as nothing seemed to happen.

"False alarm?" he asked in Harry's direction, very, very quietly.

Harry looked about to response, mouth open, when any words of his were drowned out by a horrifically ear-splitting screech, right behind them. Both Harry and Draco spun around wildly, eyes wide and faces ashen, only to be greeted by a row of razor-sharp teeth, stained red from something Harry refused to contemplate.

"I don't think so, somehow," Harry muttered in response to Draco's question, eyes transfixed by the teeth only inches from his face.

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**Author's Note: Thanks to my RL friends deppinthought, magnumzero, and clamjam for reviewing, and also Silver Moonset, clazertai, and Nooka. I really do appreciate each and every review, and I'd love to hear more people's thoughts on this story. Also thanks to my beta, Annie (clamjam).**

**I'm currently posting this fic on Schnoogle, too. The first chapter of VD is uploaded there, under the username hagaren, if you'd like to check it out (please do!). It's a slightly different version than the one here for a few reasons, but mainly just because I had a little problem with something in the FFN version that I wanted to change. What can I say, I'm impulsive.**

**If you're interested in this story, you can check my livejournal (hagaren22) for updates! Thanksss!  
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**REVIEW AND YOU GET A COOKIE:D**


	4. Hot Breath

"_Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you._" –Satchel Paige

"_We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light._" –Plato

-.-.-.-.-.-

**_Veniam Dare_ Chapter 4: Hot Breath**

Molly Weasley knelt down by her son's hospital bed, sniffing loudly and obviously trying to hide her tears. Fleur Delacour, silvery hair shining even in her grief, sat on the other side of the ward, looking just as stricken.

"Oh, Bill," she Mrs. Weasley lamented, taking the sight of her eldest child's torn body. The infamous and bloodthirsty werewolf Fenrir Greyback had attacked him during the fight at Hogwarts, and it was all Mrs. Weasley could do not to burst into tears at the sight of her son.

"Eet iz okay, Mrs. Weezley! I weel take care of Bill!" Fleur said as she swooped closer to Bill, hands clasped over her chest.

Ron, Hermione, and Ginny stood to the back of the room, all looking similarly subdued.

"At least we know Bill will be all right, even if he does happen to have a new penchant for rare meat…" Hermione said in a brave attempt at lightening the mood.

When the news had spread that the mission was accomplished, that Dumbledore was dead, all the Death Eaters had fled the castle. The Order members soon followed suit, gathering up the wounded (though luckily no dead) and bringing them to St. Mungo's, too shocked and frightened to remain inside the hallowed walls of Hogwarts. With Dumbledore gone, so soon after he had regained his standing in the Wizarding world, everything had plunged into chaos.

Ginny nodded in a subdued manner. "Yeah. I wonder if Harry's all right, though. Mum left him alone with Malfoy this morning, and she said she didn't even have time to tell him where she was going."

Hermione looked concerned. "That's a good point. Maybe we could try fire calling him? I'm sure he'd appreciate the break from Malfoy, although I shudder to imagine the mood he's in."

Ron chuckled grimly. "Poor bloke. I can't even picture what it'd be like to spend a whole day alone with that prick."

"Language, Ron!" Mrs. Weasley reprimanded from beside Bill's bed, appearing to have collected herself somewhat. Ron rolled his eyes, but Mrs. Weasley continued anyway, a little sternly. "There's a fireplace in the lobby, but don't talk too long. Harry doesn't know anything yet, about Dumbledore and…well, you know, so…" she hesitated, "just be careful how you tell him." Concern shined through her eyes.

Hermione nodded in comprehension, and then grabbed Ron by the arm to drag him out of the room, Ginny tagging along behind.

Several minutes later, they had the Floo up and running, and a fire call going. Ron knelt on the hard stone floor of the hospital room as he stuck his head into the green flames.

"Harry, mate!" he called as Grimmauld Place's living room spun into focus around him. This type of psuedo-Flooing was always a bit awkward and uncomfortable, and left him a bit queasy. It was a strange sensation, to have your head transported to a different area without your body accompanying.

There was no answering yell, and Ron frowned. "Harry?" he said again, louder. There was still no response.

From inside St. Mungo's, Hermione was smiling a little, rather enjoying the view of her boyfriend's backside. Ginny, however, was much less pleased with the situation. It had been nearly five minutes and Ron hadn't even bothered to pull out and brief them on how Harry was dealing, nor give them a chance to speak to him themselves.

She poked Ron sharply in the arse, and he pulled his head sharply out of the fireplace. "What?" he said shortly.

"What's Harry saying?" Ginny whined impatiently.

"Nothing! He's not even there! I've been shouting for him for five bloody minutes already!"

Hermione gave him a quizzical look. "Maybe he just can't hear you."

"Hermione, I've been screaming my bloody lungs out. If he can't hear me, he's bloody deaf," Ron deadpanned.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Just how many times do you have to say 'bloody' in a sentence?"

Hermione, still staring at Ron, ignored her. "Well, he's got to be there somewhere. It's not like he can just up and run away. Grimmauld Place is heavily warded."

A strange light flooded Ron's eyes as something clicked in his mind. "What if…what if Malfoy did something to him? Like tied him up, or gagged him, or knocked him out?"

Ginny's eyes also widened. "After all Dumbledore sacrificed…after all he gave up, just so that little ferret could escape what he got himself into in the first place!"

Trying to be reasonable, Hermione shook her head. "I don't see how that's possible. Grimmauld Place is monitored and guarded, and surely Phineas' portrait would have reported any suspicious activity. Besides, Harry can take care of himself. He defeated a Basilisk when he was twelve, I'm sure he can handle a ferret like Malfoy at sixteen."

Ron sighed. "Yeah, you're right. Harry would never let Malfoy do anything to him." He chuckled to himself. "Though I'd like to see Malfoy try…imagine the damage Harry'd do to him."

Hermione laughed too, but Ginny was not amused. "But that still doesn't explain why he wasn't answering Ron! Harry would never miss a chance to talk with us!"

"He could be in the shower or something, Ginny," Hermione soothed. "Harry's fine, he can take care of himself. We'll be back at Grimmauld Place later this afternoon, and then we'll get to talk to him in person."

Ginny looked a little comforted, and nodded sheepishly. "You're right, Hermione, of course. You're right. We'll see him later this afternoon, in person."

Hermione smiled reassuringly, and grabbed Ron's hand, walking him out of the Flooing room. Ginny, once again, followed behind.

-.-.-.-.-.-

In an entirely different part of the United Kingdom, the aforementioned Harry was in a bit of a spot.

The hot breath of the creature from the deep of the Forbidden Forest poured into Harry's nose, filling it with the stench of rot and decay. For a second, Harry felt like he was choking on the stink, his lungs unable to draw air, until a small sensation penetrated his fogged senses.

He could feel a patch of warmth where Draco's arm brushed his own, although the owner of the arm seemed just as completely paralyzed as Harry. Still, the idea that there was another person beside him, even if that person was Draco Malfoy, reminded Harry that he was not alone, and he was, moreover, Harry Potter, the Boy Who Always Fucking Lived.

It really wouldn't do to die in the Forbidden Forest, with Malfoy as the only witness to the supposed epic hero Harry Potter's demise. _And_, Harry thought, raising his chin a little in determination, trying to meet whatever eyes the strange, terrifying creature had, _I think I have to defeat Voldemort first, right? Isn't that how the story goes?_

Time seemed to stand still as Harry cracked an inexplicable smile, turned to Draco, grabbed his hand (now soaked in sweat from their interminable stare-down with the wicked-toothed creature), and shoved him over, hard, into the undergrowth. He landed on top of Draco, who was too startled to even groan as Harry's weight fell upon him.

As they hit the forest floor with a painful-sounding thud, time immediately started to move again, and Harry, Draco, and the monster were once again caught up in its merciless current.

The creature, all gleaming red-stained teeth and dark, blackened scales, hesitated not a moment longer, springing on the boys with another screech that chilled their very bones.

Harry, reflexes racing, shot out his wand, which was still held in the hand not attached to Draco, taking precise aim at the creature. _"Stupefy!"_ he yelled as he scrambled to his feet, pulling Draco with him. The red jet of light grazed the creature's scaly head, prompting another angry screech.

Draco, thoughts now in some semblance of order, seemed to regain a bit of his composure, and, following Harry's lead, stuck out his own wand, shouting, "_Expelliarmus_!"

This spell hit the creature directly in the chest, but instead of penetrating the blue-black scales, merely bounced off, rebounding at Harry and Draco. The two deftly ducked the spell, and then turned around and jumped behind two separate trees in opposite directions, letting go of each other's hands.

Harry's eyes flicked from Draco's position to the creature's, which was still screeching gratingly and looking between the two boys, apparently deciding which to go after. Harry, not wanting to miss what could be his only chance, shouted, "_Stupefy_," again, this time with better aim. 

The spell, although it hit its target dead on, bounced off just as Draco's had. "Shit," Harry cursed under his breath, as the creature immediately turned toward him and started charging.

"Potter," Draco yelled, frustrated, from behind his tree, "I think we've already ascertained that spells can't penetrate its scales!"

Harry, who had just jumped behind another tree in an effort to evade the oncoming monster, sniped back, "Then what do you suggest, Malfoy? Everything has a weak spot, and, besides, I'm not going to sit here and wait to be eaten!"

If Harry had been in a position to notice, he would have seen a very strange look flicker across Draco's features. Draco himself couldn't decide if his preceding words were out of panic or actual concern, although, at the moment it didn't much matter. "You're not going to die, Harry!" he hissed, almost angrily, before holding out his wand shakily before him. "_Incarcerous_!" he said shakily, unsure of himself.

Ropes flew from the wand, wrapping half-heartedly around the creature, who easily brushed them away.

Thoughts rushed through Draco's head in double-time, and, with a horrified glance at Harry, he realized that the other had tripped in an effort to get away, and was now laying sprawled out on the leaves, scrambling to get up but somehow trapped by a root. Meanwhile, the creature, only momentarily distracted by the failed ropes, reached out a clawed, bludgeon-like paw toward Harry's prone form. With another jolt, Draco realized Harry had dropped his wand several meters from where he was now laying.

Draco could just envision the claws closing in on Harry's midriff as he was raised the creature's mouth, devoured alive. Or, perhaps if Harry was lucky, the claws would simply split him clean in two before he was eaten.

A sudden shout snapped Draco out of his thoughts. "Draco!" Harry called, a note of panic in his childhood rival's voice that Draco had never heard before, not even through all of Draco's taunts and pranks in school. _Draco! _The cry echoed through Draco's mind, and he found his body acting of its own accord.

"_INCARCEROUS_!" he bellowed, putting all his will behind the spell.

Draco shivered as the rush of magic pushed through him, focusing in his wand before exiting through the tip. This time, the ropes snapped out and towards the creature, who struggled but could do nothing to escape their grasp.

Harry, still lying spread-eagled on the ground, sighed in relief. "Thanks," he said, sitting up and easily untangling his leg from the protruding root that had ensnared his leg.

Draco tried to sniff haughtily, but ended up simply taking a deep breath. "I suppose we should get out of here," he said loudly, trying to be heard over the frenzied shrieking of the trapped creature.

Harry made no sign of agreement, but picked his wand up off the ground, walking a little closer towards the creature. At first, Draco thought _Are you mad?_ but refused to say this out loud on the grounds that it might make him sound concerned for Potter, or something else equally silly and improbable.

Still, the concern was undoubtedly there. He couldn't account for the wild panic he felt when the creature had been about to kill Harry. Draco had been completely safe at the moment, able, even, to escape altogether. But instead, he had remained, and even saved Harry's life.

Perhaps it was simply because it was him and Potter now, all alone in the big, bad Forbidden Forest. If Potter perished, there would be no other friendly creature within miles, and Draco would probably get hopelessly lost, dying somewhere in the forest's depths. For once, he was reliant on Harry Potter, savior of the Wizarding world, to save him as well. The thought caused him a little faintness in the head.

He had no reason to worry, however, because Harry simply took two steps towards the creature, then raised his wand and uttered, "_Stupefy_!" aiming right between the creature's eyes.

To Draco's surprise, the spell wasn't reflected back, instead stunning the creature and abruptly cutting off its terrible screams.

"Got to hit in the soft spot, use lots of magic," Harry muttered, then let out a breath and turned to Draco, a lopsided grin on his face. "Shall we?" he offered, dazedly proffering a hand.

Draco, utterly confused and exhausted at everything that had just happened, decided to simply follow Harry's lead. He inclined his head to signal acquiescence, and took a step forward, only to have his stomach rumble rather loudly.

"Hungry, eh?" Harry laughed, and the carefree tinkling sound actually made Draco smile slightly, although he did his best to mask it with a smirk.

"We haven't eaten since breakfast yesterday, Potter. Any reasonable person would be hungry," Draco huffed.

This prompted another chuckle from Harry, although it sounded borderline manic and made Draco look at him oddly. "What're you looking at, Malfoy?" Harry asked giddily.

"Obviously an unhinged lunatic coming off an adrenaline high," Draco responded, now openly concerned, but for Harry's sanity instead of his well-being.

Giggling, Harry replied, "Even I, the Boy Who Lived to Get into Dangerous Situations, most certainly don't _come_ off of adrenaline rushes. And if I were right now, I think I'd be moaning rather than giggling, yeah?" His voice had an airy, "not-totally-there" quality to it.

Draco blanched, horrified, his jaw going slack. "Potter, did…did you just insinuate that…" Draco had to pause mid-sentence, collecting his thoughts. "That's disgusting! Utterly revolting!" he spat, trying to get the mental image of Harry climaxing out of his head. It stuck surprisingly well.

Harry simply giggled in response, and then, in a surprisingly graceful motion, fainted.

Draco made a noise of disgust. The lack of food, coupled with the strenuous fight they had both just endured, had probably caused Harry's episode. Great. Now _he'd_ have to go scavenge for food. That is, assuming there was even anything edible in the bloody forest.

Draco sighed and cast a few wards on Harry's unconscious body, which would alert Draco if anything neared it. He then slashed a bold, red "X" into the tree that Harry lay under, to mark the spot, and begun to search through the undergrowth for anything they could digest without dying.

Despite his complaints and the situation, he couldn't help the smug smirk that found its way onto his face. He had just outlasted Harry bloody Potter, and that gave him one of the best feelings of exhilaration of his life. Better than the time only one day prior when he had actually succeeded in letting Death Eaters into the impenetrable Hogwarts. Better, even, than the day he had been given his first task as one of Voldemort's followers.

He thought about all the times he had wished and hoped to beat Potter, and all the times he'd dreamt of it. All the Quidditch matches, all the pranks and fights, and the moment on the train at the beginning of sixth year when he had gotten that delicious taste of stepping, quite literally, on Harry Potter's face. He thought of everything he had been through with Harry in the last few days, everything Harry had accused him of, and how much he had deserved it, or in some cases not deserved it. And now, Harry had survived the ordeal with the monster, and Draco had survived the ordeal with the monster, and Harry was asleep, and Draco was out gathering food for the great lump, and there was an inexplicable relief in him for it all.

The smirk stayed on his face for a few moments longer, until he realized exactly why the feeling of elation in him now was so overwhelming.

He wasn't happy and relieved because he had beaten Potter.

He was happy and relieved because he had _saved_ him.

-.-.-.-.-.-

Harry awoke a few hours later to something that smelled enticingly like food.

"Mmm," he murmured, savoring the feeling of near-but-not-quite-awareness, the point at which sleep blurred with reality and made reality sort of fuzzy and unreal. Sighing contentedly, he turned over onto his side, and then promptly let out a yelp of pain, his eyes flying open. He had just rolled onto a rock.

The pain the rock caused brought with it all the memories of the last few days, and Harry let out another groan. _Great. I'm trekking in the wilderness of the Forbidden Forest, having just been almost eaten by a monster of the deep, with none other than Draco Malfoy, _he thought, scowling.

He finally stretched and sat up, taking stock of his surroundings. He was sitting in a clearing, deep in the forest. The trees stood nearly on top of each other, their foliage creating a sort of barrier between the clearing and the rest of the woods. Harry tried to squint through the dense foliage, but this only made him dizzy. The darkness beyond seemed to stretch on forever. In the clearing, only a few drops of dappled sunlight filtered through the leaves above.

A small fire was blazing a few feet away, and a pile of some grass-like weeds sat a meter beyond that. His eyes trailed from the plant to the fringe of the clearing he was sitting in to notice, with an electric jolt, that Draco was standing propped against a tree, staring intently at him.

"Have a nice nap?" he asked with a sneer, although it had slightly less bite and malice than Harry remembered.

Harry glared back at him anyway, although the effect was ruined when his stomach grumbled noisily.

Malfoy smirked broadly, but, at the pained expression on Harry's face, his features softened somewhat. He huffed and pointed airily to the pile of weeds at his feet. "Eat up," he said, with no trace of sarcasm.

Harry looked rather incredulous. "You can't be serious." When Draco's expression remained unchanged, he continued, "Those are bloody weeds, Malfoy. They're probably poison! I thought I smelled something more like food earlier…"

Sniffing haughtily, Draco looked down his nose at Harry. "That smell would probably be those highly nutritious and not at all poisonous vegetables you so glibly called _weeds_, Potter. They're actually quite tasty, I've had them at home several times, although of course they weren't wild, but all the same they're not too terribly horrid."

Harry snorted in disbelief. "And how do I know they're not poison, and you're just not trying to off me?"

Draco rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Potter, you underestimate me. If I wanted to kill you I could've done it a thousand times by now, in a thousand different ways. The first of which being during that attack with the monster."

At the mention of the monster, Harry looked around the forest clearing. "Where'd that thing go, anyway? I thought you tied it up, although it's all a bit hazy…" he trailed off at the end, as if trying to remember something.

"I don't know. I left to find _you_ some food, and when I returned the creature was gone." Draco leaned back against the tree behind him, crossing his arms over his chest. "We thoroughly trounced it, though, so I doubt it will be back anytime soon." He looked a little smug at the last sentence.

Harry almost sniggered. "Thoroughly _trounced?_" he repeated, smirking just a bit. "What, are you from the Middle Ages or something?"

Draco made an indignant noise and scowled deeply. "Shut up, Potter. I don't have to speak like a cretin just because you do." His tone had taken on some of the nastiness he had forgone during their somewhat-civil conversation.

"Gods, and you say _I'm _the cretin?" Harry muttered to himself, although he didn't quite feel like thinking about this topic any longer, since his head was starting to spin unpleasantly, and instead decided that perhaps he should endeavor to try the weeds. _Sorry, vegetables, _he thought with trepidation.

He walked woozily over to the small pile of plant-like material, and bent down to pick up a few of the slim green stems. Bringing one up to his face, he sniffed it, grimaced, and then shoved the entire thing into his mouth, deciding to get it over with.

The bitter taste of the thing made him gag, and he looked up at Malfoy with an utterly pissed expression. "What the hell are you feeding me, Malfoy!"

Draco smiled back innocently. "Oh, I must've forgotten to mention that you have to cook them first."

Harry glared. "Forgot, my arse."

-.-.-.-.-.-

Several minutes later, both Harry and Draco were seated around the fire, partaking in some of the strange vegetable. Draco claimed not to know its name, although he had eaten it many times before. Harry sat morosely in silence until a thought drifted into his mind.

"Malfoy, I was just thinking," Harry said, biting off another piece of the stemmed plant, which turned out not to be half as bad cooked as raw.

"Really, must be a miracle," Draco snarked, but Harry ignored him and continued.

"Yes, I was just thinking, and now that we're far enough into the forest to be off Hogwarts' grounds, can't we just Apparate out to Diagon Alley or Grimmauld Place?" he asked genuinely.

To his disappointment, Draco shook his head. "No, I already tried that, when you were out. It just rebounded me right back here."

"Wait, you tried to Apparate away from here while I was unconscious? You were going to leave me for dead!"

Draco nodded his head unrepentantly. "Something like that." In actuality, he had totally flipped out about his newfound and disturbingly strange feelings, and had decided running away would be the best option, a plan which was foiled by the forest. Nevertheless, he ignored Harry's glare and went on in his normal tone. "Actually, I don't know if your little Gryffindor mind has noticed, but all magic has become less potent and harder to control. Like my Incarcerous spell. I had to really concentrate my magic to make it have any effect at all."

Harry furrowed his brow. "So what does that mean?"

An exasperated Draco continued. "It means that the further we travel into this forest, the less magic we'll be able to control and use. If we encounter a creature further in, we may not be able to defend ourselves with magic at all." Draco was, honestly, terrified, although he tried to hide this fright with a conceited tone. One of his worst fears was being stripped of his magic, forced to live like a Muggle.

Harry seemed only mildly concerned. "Yeah, alright. So we'll have to be careful, make sure to watch our backs and get through this place quickly, stuff like that."

Draco gaped at him. "Potter, did you even understand what I said? _We're losing our magic. _We're going to be completely helpless, at the mercy of any creature in this place! We won't even be able to transfigure supplies or make a fire!"

"Malfoy, please, if you have an alternative, I'd like to hear it. I don't know what happened up at Hogwarts, but there're still Death Eaters there, and we're both near the top of Voldemort's hit list. The forest can't go on forever, and when we get nearer to the outside we'll be able to Apparate to safety."

Draco buried his head in his hands. "Fine, whatever. Let's just get out of here."

Harry was almost startled by Draco's defeated tone. Although Harry had beaten him more times than he could count on one hand, Malfoy had never looked or sounded like he had been overcome.

"Er…you okay, Malfoy?" Harry asked tentatively.

"I'm fine, let's just get the hell out of this place!" he snapped back, standing up and brushing off his torn and hopelessly dirty school robes.

Harry nodded and did likewise. Angry Malfoy he could deal with, usually by raging back. Sulky, conquered Malfoy, however, was something frighteningly foreign to him.

Harry kicked some dirt on the fire, and then walked over to the edge of the clearing to stand beside Draco. He closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, and then stepped into the thick darkness of the wood, a small smile darting across his features as he felt Draco right beside him.

-.-.-.-.-.-

An hour or so after Harry and Draco vacated the wooded clearing, two other creatures shuffled in, hooves brushing almost silently through the leaves. They looked from the deadened fire pit to the obvious shoeprints in the soft loam.

"Humans," the first centaur said, sniffing the air disdainfully. "Two, by the look of the prints."

His companion trotted over to the fire pit and jabbed at it with an outstretched finger. "They were here no more than an hour ago. We could easily catch them."

The first centaur shook his head. "No. We must first tell Magorian that there were human trespassers in the star-gazing clearing, as was foreseen."

A placid smile slid onto the second centaur's face, contrasting heavily with his dark words. "You are right, Bane. Perhaps an ambush would be effective at deterring the human scum, anyhow."

The other nodded and together they galloped off into the woods, eager to carry the news of humans so deep in their forest back to their chief.

-.-.-.-.-.-

**A/N: Well. Another chapter down. Thanks for the beta by Annie, who pointed out that there isn't an over-arching plot in this yet. Yeah, I know. Actually, there's tons of foreshadowing for one, especially in this chapter. It'll all come together eventually. :evil laugh: Oh yes, it'll all come together…**

**Thanks for continuing to read this rag, and comments are loved beyond belief.**


	5. The Cross on the Tree

**A/N: Ugh, writing this chapter felt SO much longer than the others, yet it's actually the same length. Fuck fanfiction. :P**

**-----**

"_Paula, you're talking rubbish_!" –Simon Cowell

"_Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the universe."_ –Albert Einstein

**-----**

**Chapter 5: The Cross on the Tree**

Draco could have hexed himself for how horrifyingly stupid he had been.

Why the hell had he followed Potter into the Forbidden Forest? He had known, he had surely known, that any idea courtesy of Harry Potter would have been a bloody awful one. Really, the question was why he had gone against his better judgment and left Grimmauld Place at all.

Oh, right. He had been feeling _bad_ about his actions at Hogwarts.

_Stupid, fucking conscious, _Draco sulked to himself, dragging his feet through the thick mix of decomposing leaves and forest grasses he was, and had been, walking through for several hours. _Who needs one if this is where they get you?_

"Malfoy, stop feeling sorry for yourself," Harry interjected into his thoughts, weary of the morose look on Draco's face.

"Make me, Scarhead." Damn. Was that really the best he could come up with?

Harry made a frustrated noise. "Do you have to be so difficult all the time? I'm really, really trying here, Malfoy, but you're making it near impossible."

"Oh yeah, and 'stop feeling sorry for yourself' was definitely the epitome of niceness, Potter," said Draco sarcastically.

"And you're _still _being difficult!"

Draco snorted. "Really, Potter, shut up or I'll have to start actually insulting you again."

Now it was Harry's turn to snort. "I'm beyond your petty insults now, Malfoy. Nothing you can say about me means anything." After these two days of dealing exclusively with a Malfoy, he had decided the best course was to simply let Draco's jibes slide right off him.

Raising an eyebrow, Draco replied, "You so sure? What about that blood-traitor Weasel girl you fucked last year?"

Harry's face reddened. "Don't go there, Malfoy."

"What, ickle Potty, bothered by my 'petty insults?' Or," Draco continued, eyes widening in comprehension, "are you bothered because you never actually got around tofucking her?"

"Shut it, Malfoy." Harry's voice was low and dangerous.

"Yes, yes, the second one must be it," Draco persisted in an airy, amused tone. "Although I find that rather hard to believe. That little slut has shagged just about everybody else, after all."

"Malfoy," Harry warned, but Draco ignored him and continued talking.

"Now that I think about it, I wonder what she does with all those brothers of hers. You know, a girl can get pretty lonely going all summer without her big, strong boyfriend about to satisfy her. But then again, you weren't exactly "satisfying" her in the first place, were you?" Draco smirked.

And then Harry snapped. "Shut the fuck up, Malfoy! Don't you _dare_ talk about Ginny that way, she's twice the man you'll ever be!"

"Are you coming out to me, Potter? I always knew there was something odd about a single girl in a family of far too many boys. Now I know: she's apparently not even a _she_," Draco replied, nonplussed.

"I'm not bloody coming out to you, you fucking git! I'm not even gay!" Harry shouted, looking like he was just about to punch Draco really, really hard. "And…and Ginny's a girl!" he added as an afterthought.

Draco raised a nonchalant eyebrow. "Seems like you're pretty vehement for a straight boy."

"Apparently not vehement enough if you're still going on about it."

"All I'm saying, Potter, is that you didn't have sex with the sluttiest girl in school, who also happened to be your steady girlfriend and was probably gagging for it herself. You wouldn't even _know_ if she were a man or not. It all adds up, actually."

Draco's smirk widened at the totally put-off expression on Harry's face. "Oh, budge up, Potter, I'm sure some sadistic man will find it in his heart to fuck a guy like you. Actually, what am I talking about? Even a sadistic man isn't _blind_."

Harry scowled. "I doubt there's any man that could possibly be more sadistic than you, Malfoy," he muttered under his breath, although Draco caught it anyway. "And I'm _not _gay," he added, louder.

"Of course, Potter, whatever you say, but the first step to acceptance is admitting it," he sighed, mock-chastising Harry.

"I'm not gay, Malfoy!"

"Naturally, Potter, naturally," Draco said in a mockingly grave tone.

Harry made a frustrated noise.

"Oh, and I thought I heard you say nothing I happened to mention would 'mean anything' to you," Draco said smugly.

"You're a right arse, Malfoy, and you know it."

The smug smirk broadened. "Please, Potter, being gay isn't all bad."

Harry suddenly stopped his trudging through the undergrowth. "And you would know that how…?"

Malfoy flushed scarlet and sped up his pace. "I wouldn't, that's how."

Harry could've burst out laughing at the sudden switch of their roles. "Pretty vehement for a straight boy, eh?" he called after Draco, who was now a good ten meters ahead.

"Oh, shuttup, Pot—" Draco halted mid-sentence.

"What is it, Malfoy? Bothered by _my_ ickle insults, are we?"

A look of disbelief spread onto Draco's face, Harry's taunts seemingly lost to him in his shock. "This…this can't be. I have to be mistaken." He seemed to be staring fixedly at the side of a tree, conveniently set in a small clearing. Exactly what had so captured his attention, however, was obscured by branches.

Harry furrowed his brow, an uneasy feeling creeping into his stomach to replace the amiability of only moments before. "What is it?"

"Potter," Draco continued, an unusual edge to his voice, "come look at this and tell me what you make of it."

Harry, skeptical and mildly concerned, walked over to the apparently fascinating tree to stand beside Draco. "Er…exactly what am I looking at? All I see is a big, red X slashed onto the bark here."

He paused to look Draco over, startled at how panicked Draco now seemed. "It's a little weird, yeah, Malfoy, but nothing to get worked up about. This is the Forbidden Forest; any random creature could've made this."

"Potter," Draco said again, deathly white and looking rather ill, "does anything else about this clearing look familiar? Like you've ever seen it before?"

Harry glanced around the area. "Let's see…giant, gloomy trees, rotten leaves, creepy Forbidden Forest air. Yes, I'll have to say that it does look familiar. This entire bloody forest looks familiar, as a matter of fact, since it _all_ looks exactly the same. What're you so worried about?"

"It wasn't 'any random creature' who made this, Potter." Draco gulped. "It was me. While you were unconscious, I went out to search for something to eat. I marked this exact X on the tree I left you under so that I'd be able to find my way back."

Harry furrowed his brow. "Wait…you made this thing? That's impossible, we've been walking for nearly a day, and I'm sure we didn't get turned around. I've been doing quick point-me's every few hours."

"I'm positive I made it. See the flourish there at the tail end? That's my signature technique!"

"You have a _signature technique_? Malfoy, it's a _letter _not a game of Quidditch," Harry said incredulously.

"Potter, this isn't the time!" Draco snapped. "This means we've walked in a giant circle, and wasted all this time going nowhere! We might as well have just sat around all day gorging ourselves on those revolting vegetable plant-things!"

"Hah, so you admit they're gross!" Harry said triumphantly.

Draco's face became flushed, an illustration of his rising temper.

"Ok, ok, I get it, Malfoy," Harry quickly said, "but I just don't understand how that's possible. It has to be the forest playing some kind of trick on us. Maybe we walked into a trap?"

Draco looked at him in disbelief. "How can you be so calm about this?! Isn't it worse if we've walked into a trap than if we just walked in a circle?"

Harry didn't answer, still staring at the X. "Let's just find a reference point and keep going forward. How about we put a small mark on every fifth tree or something, to make sure we're going in a straight line?"

"Yeah, ok, whatever," Draco sighed, tired and perpetually hungry. "And we can look for something to eat along the way."

The two boys nodded and once again stepped out of the clearing, Draco marking another decorative X as they went. After a few more steps, Harry marked another red X, and on it went for an incalculable period of time, until they were both too tired and weak to continue.

"Shit," Draco cursed, foregoing his usual impeccable posture to slouch against a tree trunk. "If we don't find more food soon, I don't know how I'm going to make it."

Harry slumped down next to him. "Shut it, you're not making this any more pleasant, you know. If it weren't for you I could've just escaped that Death Eater and be back at Grimmauld with the Order instead of here with some ungrateful traitor."

Draco stuck out his lip in a pout. "_You're_ the one who dragged _me_ in here. So that means _you _shut it."

Harry was silent. "Ahh, shit," he finally said after a few moments. "Let's just make it as far as we can for today and then we'll rest." He stood up shakily and offered Draco a hand.

Draco looked at it quizzically, then glanced up at Harry's face. He was looking away, and his expression was almost…embarrassed.

Smirking, Draco had to ask, "What's this? An apology?"

Harry snorted, but didn't argue. "Just take it, you weak git. I bet you can't even stand on your own."

Draco also didn't argue, mostly because he was pretty sure Harry was right. He took his hand, and pulled himself up. The brief touch of Harry's rough skin to his own reminded him of the glittering, shattered glass of the broken window back at Hogwarts. Not in texture, but in the beauty of something so dangerous and forbidden to pick up. His own hands were soft and pale, so different.

Harry held onto Draco's hand for a little longer than necessary, although finally let it slide out of his grip. The smoothness was comforting. It reminded him of Ginny's hands, except without the expectation of that touch leading to something more.

"Potter?" Draco prompted, and Harry looked up, startled.

"What?" Harry was even more startled at the concerned frown creasing Draco's forehead, and the way he looked at him so worriedly, his cool gray eyes unusually warm.

"You just looked sort of far-off." Draco shrugged dismissively and continued forward.

Harry looked curiously after him.

-.-.-.-.-

"Fuck! Shit! Bugger!"

"Ron! Mind your mouth!" Hermione reprimanded him sternly. "There is definitely an explanation for this. Definitely."

"An explanation for why Harry is nowhere to be bloody found in this creepy old house, and Malfoy is neither?!" Ron retorted, turning pink. "I tell you, that fucking ferret probably surprise attacked Harry and turned him over to Voldemort!"

"Ron, really. Your mother's already called together a search team for him. It'll be ok." Hermione said, choosing to cling to logic in place of Ron's emotional approach.

Ron looked aghast. "I can't believe you're not more distraught over this. Our best friend is MISSING. Come to think of it, you said that exact same thing earlier when we tried to firecall him, and look where we are now! Or rather, where _he _is now!"

Hermione expression broke, and her hands started shaking. "What, you think that I'm not more incredibly scared over this than I have been by anything else in my life before? You think that Harry, my best friend, doesn't matter to me more than almost anything else in the world?" She had started yelling, her veneer of calmness gone completely. "I wish I could do something for him, to save him like he's always saved me, but how can I? What's there to do?"

Ron was speechless for a moment, and then walked over and put a comforting hand on Hermione's shoulder. "I didn't…I didn't mean it like," he said quietly.

Hermione bit her lip and looked away. "I know. But we have to help in any way we can, even if that means just staying here and strategizing."

"I just wish that we could _do _something, like actually get out and help him somehow," Ron said, embarrassed to notice that he was absentmindedly stroking her hair.

"We _can_ do something," Hermione said, squeezing her eyes shut and opening them again. "We can start locating the Horcruxes, maybe even destroying them. Even if Harry's not here, we can still help him. Especially if he's already in Voldemort's grasp, we have to give him every chance to kill him that we can."

The shine of grim determination in her eyes startled Ron, but he stood up straighter. "Where should we start?"

She thought for a moment before answering. "What do you think the chances are of us getting into the Hogwarts library again?"

"Hasn't Hogwarts been overrun by Death Eaters? I thought Professor McGonagall turned on the wards."

Hermione smiled mischievously in a way that went straight to Ron's groin. "Looks like we're going to have to break in then, doesn't it?"

-.-.-.-.-

"Sure you don't want an ickle rest now, Drakkey?" Harry taunted, snickering at Draco's unkempt state.

"I'm fine, thanks," Draco sneered back, although he was breathing heavily. Truthfully, the only reason Harry had felt compelled to instigate him was because he himself was about to fall over from fatigue. Malfoy had always been weaker than him, so he had assumed he'd lose it first, although he actually seemed to be holding it together. That, and Harry could never resist a mind game with Draco Malfoy.

And, of course, it was an excellent distraction from the gnawing hunger and the growing weakness in his legs.

"Sure you don't want a little nap, Malfoy, you're looking marginally more awful than usual, although actually come to think of it you always were a pretty awful git," he smirked, stumbling a little.

Draco's sneer held fast on his face, and he even picked up his pace, moving ahead of Harry. "Oh, shuttup, Potter. You know it's really you whos—" Draco's voice was cut off as he suddenly vanished into thin air, accompanied by a loud crash.

"Malfoy?" Harry shouted, quickly drawing his wand and scanning the proximity. "Malfoy! Can you hear me? Are you all right?"

He breathed in slowly, and realized that the forest had become absolutely silent. Not a creature stirred anywhere, Harry's own rapid heartbeat the only audible sound. He slowly turned around in a circle, painfully aware of the unavoidable crunching his footsteps made in the loam.

_Thump, thump-thump. _His heartbeat sounded like a drum, and he was sure every creature in the forest could hear it. His own heart, giving him away…the irony was too much for him to think about, so instead he concentrated on just listening for something, anything at all.

He swallowed down the urge to call out to Draco again. _Shit_, he thought, taking a defensive step back. _What the hell is going_—

Any other thoughts were halted as he felt something constrict around his ankle, springing up and lifting him into the air, upside down.

From his new vantage point, upside-down about five feet in the air, he could see the reason for Draco's disappearance. A huge hole had been disguised by a leaf-covered net, which Draco had innocently stepped into. Harry could just barely see his blond form lying prostrate on at the bottom of a six-foot hole.

Harry's breathing sped up, the blood pouring into his head and pounding louder than ever.

"Malfoy!" he called, swinging around frantically in midair. "Malfoy! Get up, you have to get up!"

"Diffindo," Harry muttered, pointing his wand at the rope holding him in the air. Nothing happened, the rope still held strong. "_Diffindo!" _he tried again, with more emphasis, this time concentrating everything he had, like when he was casting the Incarcerous spell earlier. He could feel the spell work this time, the magic flow through him and even saw its faint glimmer as it traveled through the air and into the rope. But the rope was still not severed.

With a horrible jolt he realized the rope was probably enchanted, not just to resist magic but also so it might never let him down. "Malfoy!" he yelled again, more anxiously. "Please, I've never asked you for anything in my life before but just please, please GET UP!"

The wind stirred behind him, rustling the leaves of the trees ominously. The forest seemed to grow darker.

"Diffindo!" he tired, one last time, but it was not the sound of cutting rope that resulted but a voice, quiet and cold.

"Your brand of magic will never work on those ropes," it said, and for a haunting second Harry thought it was Voldemort, come after him in the middle of the Forbidden Forest to finish him off for the last time. Harry hadn't yet destroyed the Horcruxes, he hadn't even gotten to say goodbye to Ron and Hermione. It couldn't end here, where no one would even know of his death!

"They are made out of centaur hair from our own tribe," it continued, "and are resistant to any trifling human magic you could ever try."

Harry's face fell in relief, the voice not enough of a hiss and the tone not so devoid of the memory of love to belong to Voldemort.

A figured appeared in Harry's line of view, and scrutinized him closely. "You dare underestimate us?" the creature, which Harry could now see was a centaur, hissed, apparently insulted by the way Harry's expression had softened.

"No, no! I've witnessed firsthand the prowess of centaurs," he said, thinking desperately. Although his captor hadn't turned out to be Voldemort, centaurs were probably the next worst thing. He was in centaur territory now, _their _territory, where even the viciously imperialistic Ministry had never dared tread, and for sound reason. "Please, I'm just lost, I don't mean any harm."

Out of the corner of his eye he noticed that Draco was gone. Had another centaur come and taken him away already? Or had he…escaped? Either way Harry didn't have much to hope for. If Malfoy had indeed gotten away, there was no way in hell he was coming back into danger to save Harry, Harry knew. He couldn't even manage to hate him for it, although he knew he never would do the same.

The centaur snorted throatily. "You are lost, very lost, human. So far from all your laws and petty commands, so deep in the forest."

Harry looked into his eyes. "I know, and I just want to go home. Please," he begged, unable to think of anything else he could do.

This time the centaur laughed coldly. "When a centaur wanders into the lands you wizards have stolen and declared your own, he is imprisoned, merely for stepping on the earth that has always been rightfully his. Why would we show any mercy to a thieving beast of a human trespassing on our own lands?"

"Please," Harry said again.

The centaur grinned maliciously, and then undid the rope wrapped around Harry's ankle, and he fell none-too-gently to the ground. Reaching down, grin still plastered on his face, the centaur grabbed Harry by the neck, lifting him up so they were eye-to-eye. A look of confused curiosity crossed his face. "You seem familiar, human. Have I crossed paths with you bef-"

Before he could finish, a louder yell sounded. "Hey! Centaur thing! Over here, I'm a much better catch! My dad works with the Ministry…er, used to work with the Ministry! Come and get me!"

Harry looked wildly around. It was Draco's voice. Meaning he'd…he'd come back, for Harry.

And was additionally doing something incredibly stupid, dangerous, and, Harry had to admit, very much what he would have done.

The centaur turned around, still holding Harry, his grip choking. "You are a fool," he said simply.

"I would agree wholeheartedly, as I think Potter would too," Draco replied, and Harry noticed how frozen he looked.

"Potter?" the centaur asked, looking back to Harry. "Harry Potter, we have indeed crossed paths before." His wicked grin slipped back on.

The expression struck a match in Harry's mind. A centaur he remembered… "Bane…" he choked out, the hand too tightly grasped around his throat.

"Sorry to interrupt your little reunion, but…" Both Bane and Harry looked over at Draco, and Harry gasped/gurgled (they were one in the same with a constricted throat). Draco had whipped out his wand, and was pointing it straight at Bane. "…I'm really not a fool. Stupefy!" he shouted, and the spell had just enough potency to shock Bane into dropping Harry, although he barely even cringed.

Harry didn't pause, getting up and sprinting away from the mildly distracted centaur. Draco had fled almost before the spell was even off his lips, so he followed his lead into the trees.

Bane galloped after them, quickly gaining, until he started at the sight of his leader, Magorian, standing ahead. He wondered why he was not joining the chase.

"Magorian! Trespassers!" Bane yelled, running past him.

Magorian, instead of following, stuck out his arm to block Bane's path. "Ronan told me you would be ambushing the humans."

Bane looked aghast. "Those trespassers are escaping! They attacked me! We must follow them!" he said, pointing to the two humans crashing haphazardly through the forest, disappearing farther away every second.

Magorian shook his head. "Those humans, do you know who they are?" he asked calmly.

Bane spat on the ground. "Scum is what they are, they insulted our kind."

Magorian gazed up at the forest canopy and small sliver of starry sky visible above, still shaking his head. "Those are the two visitors fated to come here, the two from the castle, fated to return to darkness." He glanced down, directly at Bane. "They are meant only to meet us in passing, their futures lie in a distant and cold place. We must not interfere."

Bane looked longingly at where the two boys had run. They had disappeared into the dark of the forest, although it would not be hard to track their movement based on the underbrush they were destroying in their clumsy haste.

"It's written in the stars, it cannot be disobeyed," Magorian added, eyes still locked on Bane.

Bane grudgingly stood down. "If it is written in the stars, I cannot oppose it." He thought a moment, then said, "If I may ask, what is it that is written? What is their fate?"

Magorian finally glanced away, his face shadowed. "Nothing is certain. The stars merely reveal that around those two, the dark is rising. They are to again return to the human world, but only terror awaits there. Terror, violence, and death, that is their fate as the stars sing it."

Bane scuffed a hoof across the ground, and Magorian closed his eyes in respect.

----

**In chapter 6 of VD**: Life, it seems, works in a funny sort of way. The things you're running away from hardest have a tendency to catch up with you again, sometimes in the worst of ways. Draco, Harry, Ron, and Hermione better all watch their backs.


End file.
